The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1887-04-01
Blaine's Chances.

New COLUMBUS, Pa. March 2S, 1887.
For the COLUMBIAN.
Now that political aspirants are feel
ing their strength for the Presidency,
permit me few words of conjecture,
not presuming to elevate my reflections
to prophecy. Should you deem them
space worthy, you are at liberty to
print otherwise, to consign them to
the open nav of the waste basket, that
their incense Gf not innocencc) may
arise when the torch is applied.
With Edmunds and Blaine as fight
ing possibilities in the east, wa can see
as between them nothing but another
defeat. In the event of either's nomi.
nation it would be the old fight OF
Halfbreeds versus Stalwart, or. vice
oersd, repeated. And to presume, as
your neighbor, the Republican, inti-
mates that the worst has been said of
Mr.. Blaine, DC, to presume too much,
when the half has not been told of the
devious ways of this public officer from
poverty to wealth, which is too we'll
known by his Senatorial associates o.
either party to ever inspire their conf
dence or enlist them in his cause. In
fact such presumption is to forget the
inactivity of the stalwart leaders OF
the party, who held slocf IN disgust
aud left him to his own salvation be.
cause, among other objections was also
that of the informality of his forced
nomination at Chicago. For with a
few notable exceptions within the
party, such as Shurtz and Beecher,
there was no real aggressive work upon
the stump against him. The bits of
sarcasm drawn from C3nkling and
other stalwarts during the campaign of
course did his cause no good but
neither Grant nor Edmunds nor Conk-
ling nor Cameron did aggressive work
against him. In fact, on the contrary,
few favorable combinations with stall
warts were effected by the Plumed
Knight, and yet, though he enlisted
the Catholic heart of Democracy in his
so-called republican cause, the Knight
was unhorsed. The animal bucked be-
cause of "Rum, Romauism and Re.
bellioD," 1t is claimed. We think, how
ever, his political and religious Jug
Cling in which he covered everything
in politics and religion at home and
abroad was too far-reaching In states.
msnship to suit the contracted minds
of his less intense constituents, and
hence his inglorious defeat. Now,
what he has done since, or what he can
ever do to enlist the sympathy and the
confidence of those who felt justified
in discarding him, whether from polit.
ical or religious motives we cannot con.
ceive, nor can the Republican. Earn.
estly, if we must leave this Protestant
country and appeal to the religious
prejudioes of Rome in order to regain
our lost prestige through the half-breed
policy of Blaine then we would sug-
gest the possibility Of success in Gen
eral Sherman (the noblest Ron an of
them ally through the medium of his
wife, who can boast of the honor of
having received from the hands of his
Holiness the Pope of Rome, a golden
rose as token of his blessing and
special appreciation of Mrs. Sherman
an the first and most worthy recipient
OF America. To the more anxious we
make this suggestion as straw worth
grasping at. Tie to it, build an ark of
II, and is Blaine gets on-and no doubt
he will-bind him hand and foot aud
make an anchor of him for the craft
and then perhaps you may get there
after the fashion of that intense Amer
ican, the unplumed knight.
Yours &c,
]. j. JAAIsos,